Saturday, October 14, 2006

Flaky pie with chocolate and mini pears

Is pie the first thing come to your mind when I ask you your favorite Amercian food? I wasn't surprised when someone told me there's a pie in Asia actually called Amercian Pie. I do like Amercian pies, especially those with flaky crust. To accomplish an ideal flakyness requires a lot of practice, so the saying easy as pie is not always true :P But please don't let the first few not-so-perfect crusts let you down, everyone of us has gone through this phase and now, I'm not shy to tell you I expecting oooh-ahhhhing from my family and friends every time they taste my flaky pie :D For the fillings (chocolate + poached pears) I don't think they're popular in my area, but since I've seen many Italians always pairing these two together, so I gave it a try.

The pie crust recipe is from Gale Gand's, and hers is very well written.

In a pot, combine half bottle of sparkling white wine, a cup of sugar, some lemon zest, a cinnamon stick, and bring to boil. Taste, and add water if necessary

Submerge the pears in the liquid, simmer until the pear tender but not mushy. But I like mine pretty firm, so it took less than 5 minutes.

Transfer the pears on a cutting board and let cool. I halved them and took out as many seeds as I could. But if you're not going to serve the pie right away, you can chill the pears in the poached liquid.

Only arrange the poached pears (and the leaves) on the pie right before you serve.

hi gattina,how do you do it every time??so incredibly delicious and stunning...amazing!this cake is without a doubt now one my favourite American food (together with pancakes of course... ;) ) can't wait for the next one...=)

Monisha, thanks for your compliement. Fall is really very beauitful in my area!

Shaheen, the chocolate and poached pears are very delicious on their own. That day I first tasted them together, I didn't register anything (as my mind totally single-tracked by pear+spice combo which I always do). Today I made pear chocolate cupcakes and found they're pretty good. Maybe it just take me more time to adjust, or it goes better with cake?!...

I absolutely love your blog! I tried to add it to my feedreader but it says that you don't publish a feed?

Not sure if you're interested in setting one up, but if so, you can set one up easily using feedburner (http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/help/blogger_quickstart), that way people who subscribe to your feed can find out straight away when you publish a new entry? Just a thought :)